Phillips have announced a dedicated David Hockney sale that will become part of their annual Editions schedule.
The standalone auction, which this year takes place on 20 September, follows the success of Phillips’ White Glove David Hockney auction in 2022 and reflects an increasing demand for Hockney’s prints, paintings and photographs.
Recognised as one of the most influential British artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, David Hockney’s practice continues to develop – and interest from collectors continues to grow. Recent shows in the USA along with the upcoming retrospective at London’s newly reopened National Portrait Gallery demonstrate the artist’s international appeal. And, through projects such as the immersive David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away) at Lightroom, Hockney is reaching collectors of all genres and generations.
Phillips’ upcoming David Hockney auction will feature a broad selection of works which span the entirety of the artist’s career, including two of Hockney’s earliest and most rare lithographs, Woman With A Sewing Machine (estimate: £10,000 – 15,000) and Fish and Chip Shop (estimate: £15,000 – 20,000). Both produced in 1954 while the teenage Hockney was a student at Bradford School of Art, these images provide highly personal insights into the artist’s formative years. Recalling the interior scenes of French masters such as Édouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard, these two works also foreground Hockney’s comprehensive understanding of art history and the numerous references at play throughout his oeuvre.
Following these early forays into printmaking, Hockney has continued to create seminal artworks in a variety of media over the past six decades. Also included in Phillips’ auction are iconic swimming pool compositions such as Lithographic Water Made of Lines, Crayon, and Two Blue Washes (estimate: £80,000 – 120,000), as well as Pembroke Studio Interior (estimate: £40,000 – 60,000) from the artist’s Moving Focus series.
Showcasing how the artist has continually sought to push the boundaries of traditional printmaking, examples of Hockney’s recent iPad drawings accompany Self-Portrait, July 1986 (estimate: £20,000 – 30,000)- an example of the experimental ‘Home-Made Prints’ that Hockney developed in the 1980s using an office photocopier.
Robert Kennan, Head of Editions, Europe, at Phillips, said:
“This regular David Hockney sale in the auction calendar looks to celebrate the achievements of the artist, from his early Bradford School of Art lithographs to his latest iPad publications and an exciting variety of works in between. The demand for the artist’s work was made evident to us in the extraordinary response we received to our standalone Hockney auction in September 2022.”
“There is huge demand for the expansive spectrum of work Hockney has produced in a variety of mediums throughout his lifetime. This fixed auction is an opportunity to acquire Hockney’s work at all price points; from entry level works priced at £1,000 to higher value pieces at £250,000 and above, there is something for every collector.”
“Contemporary edition collecting is something we feel incredibly passionate about and reinventing the auction calendar by creating curated sales such as David Hockney allows us to respond to our community and better engage with global collectors, whilst reflecting our innovative approach to meeting current collecting demands.”
The David Hockney dedicated auction takes place at Phillips’ London saleroom on 20 September. For further information: phillips.com
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Image: David Hockney, Lithographic Water Made of Lines, Crayon, and Two Blue Washes, 1978-80, estimate: £80,000–120,000. Image courtesy of Phillips